Seniors Choose Mary Pattillo of Northwestern as the Annual Model Scholar

Sociologist Mary Pattillo of Northwestern University visited the campus on November 1 as the 12th annual Urban Studies “Model Scholar.” Pattillo met privately with the students in the senior seminar over breakfast, and then in the afternoon spoke publicly on “The Future of Black Metropolis.” Over 100 people attended the talk, which was held in the Center for Educational Research at Stanford.

During the breakfast session, Pattillo spoke to seniors about their research, and drew on her own experiences as an urban ethnographer to share tips and advice. As an Urban Studies graduate herself (from Columbia University’s program), she said she felt a bond with the students.

The model scholar lecture is a unique event at Stanford, in part because the speaker is chosen by students. This year, a committee of four members of the junior class spent much of last winter and spring researching different scholars in the field before settling on Pattillo as a true “model” of scholarship and engagement. Readings from her scholarship were included in the syllabus of the senior seminar in the fall, so all the students were familiar with her work by the time she arrived.

Pattillo is Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University.  Her areas of interest include race and ethnicity, the black middle class, policy, inequality, urban sociology, and qualitative methods.  Her first book, Black Picket Fences (University of Chicago Press, 1999), won the Oliver Cromwell Cox Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association.  Pattillo’s most recent book, Black on the Block (University of Chicago Press 2007) focused on gentrification and public housing transformation in North Kenwood - Oakland on Chicago's South Side.  It won the Robert Park Book Award and a proclamation of the City of Chicago.  Pattillo is also a founding board member and active participant in Urban Prep Charter Academy, the first all-boys public charter high school in Chicago.